BARD COLLEGE PRESENTS PERFORMANCE OF NADA YOGA AND DHRUPAD VOCAL MUSIC FROM NORTHERN INDIA November 11 program features Shanti Shivani, Bard students, and Jeffrey Lidke on tablas

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.?Bard College will present a performance of Nada Yoga and Dhrupad vocal music, the most ancient style of North Indian classical music, on Sunday, November 11, at 6:30 p.m. The performance, free and open to the public, will be held in the Chapel of the Holy Innocents on the Bard campus.

Featured performer, Shanti Shivani, is a singer, composer, vocal teacher, and recording artist, as well as an established workshop leader of Northern Indian music in Europe and the United States since 1986. A student of the illustrious Dagar family, the foremost exponents of Dhrupad vocal music, since 1981, she has also studied with renowned European "sound healers" and movement teachers. Joining Shivani in the program on November 11 will be Bard students and Jeffrey Lidke, visiting assistant professor of religion.

While at Bard, Shivani is also leading workshops for students on Nada Yoga, an ancient, mystical tradition for healing, empowerment, and transformation that is the core of Dhrupad vocal music. She is instructing the students in specific body movements and vocal techniques designed to open up the breath and unveil the natural voice; sacred syllables unique to the Dhrupad tradition on which the raga is improvised; improvisational phrases that express the essence of the mood of the raga that is chosen of the performance; and a composition to be accompanied on tablas (North Indian drums) by Lidke.

Shivani is the first Anna Jones Memorial Artist in Residence at Bard. For further information on the concert, contact Jeffrey Lidke at 845-758-7364 or
e-mail lidke@bard.edu.